Cheese drip the new hip

We all know cheese is versatile. It’s one of the great food staples.
It can also be a gourmet product and a marketer’s dream, used to sell everything from festivals, to wine and romantic getaways.
But it wasn’t until recently that I found out, cheese is also hip.
And not as in the ‘parents’ old fondue set kind of hip’ (as fabulous as the 70s fondue party was I’m sure).
It’s the ‘inner city hipster with a beard and a top knot’ kind of hip (minus the vegans of course).
I’ve come to this conclusion after numerous ads for cheese-themed festivals started popping up in my social media feeds, including that most hipster of trends – food truck festivals.
If you haven’t been, a food truck festival is a fancy way for fancy people to eat take-away food without having to go to a drive through.
It’s like enjoying Mr Whippy for as a main meal – but in a park. With beer.
In Melbourne in May, it was the Fried Cheese Festival, featuring a whole lot of halloumi, mozzarella sticks, truffled cheese, American-style Reuben sandwiches and Philly Cheese steaks (which are named after the American city in Pennsylvania, not the brand of cream cheese.)
Three weeks later, there was a Mac and Cheese festival which I imagine involved a lot of people lounging around in elasticised pants eating Mac and Cheese served fifteen different ways (with blue cheese; with truffles, as a lasagne; fried as a croquette to imagine just a few…).
And then, just last month, a Victorian-based American-style burger food truck business, Real O.G, took the phenomenon one step further: combining the traditional cheese burger with a fondue-style melted cheese, to create Australia’s cheesiest cheeseburger.
Owner Frank Rusitovski said the idea originates from a food trend in the USA, where the hamburger bun explodes with cheese.
“Cheese is what truly makes a good burger, a great burger,” Frank said.
“We wanted to take that feature to the next step, so we’ve made Australia’s cheesiest cheeseburger from premium quality ingredients, sourced locally, so you can taste the high quality produce that Australia is so well-known for.”
The ‘Drip it like it’s hot’ Cheese Pour burger invites customers to first pick their favourite style of fresh burger (which usually already contains cheese), choose a flavour (O.G, Chipotle or Smoky) and then pour a generous amount of the melted cheese sauce onto the burger.
The pouring cheese is a blend of cheddar, mozzarella and parmesan.Footy fans were among the first to get a taste, with the Real O.G now stationed outside Gate 5 at Etihad Stadium on game days.
As a Carlton supporter, I’ve been avoiding football matches at Etihad for about 10 years now. But this cheese pour burger might actually be enough to make it worth the trip.
And the good news is, for those who can’t get to Melbourne, the Real O.G roving food truck has also been known to visit regional areas on request. Man Bun optional.